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New Director Brings New Ideas, Sense of Unity to the FHN Band

Senior trumpet player Jacob Lintner yelled “Band Ten Hut,” as the rest of the Knightpride Marching Band responded “Hut.” This is the routine when the band’s name gets called at competitions during awards. This time, it was in celebration of their first place in their division at the Fort Madison and Mount Pleasant, Iowa competitions.

“I’m not much of a trophy person,” band director Robert Stegeman said. “I’m more about the growth of the individuals and the growth of the program on a day to day basis and their first performance had come a long way from O’Fallon and their second performance even went further past that. So, I think that any band that can take the instruction that we give them and apply it even within the same day is really in a good spot.”

The Knightpride band competed at Fort Madison, Iowa and Mount Pleasant, Iowa on Saturday Sept. 17. The band was judged on music on an individual level, visual on an individual level, music general effect, visual general effect, caption awards that include: best horn line, best drumline, best color guard and best drum major. There would be a first, second and third in each caption. At the Fort Madison contest they received first in their division, best color guard and best horn line. At the Mount Pleasant contest they received second in their division along with best color guard. The band also received the sweepstakes award for having the highest combined point total for both contests. This was their first traveling show of the year.

“Aside from actual packing, I’m more mentally focused at practices when it comes to farther away competitions,” senior baritone player Fionna Pillow said.  “I practiced my music and made sure everyone around me was prepared.”

Each band member prepares differently. For some members, they prepare mentally by listening to music or even napping before the competition. Something the  band does as a whole to get hyped before competition is reciting their chant at warm ups. After not scoring as high as desired in their first competition, many approached this competition differently.

“I changed my mindset from confident to more modest, which actually made me more accurate,” junior clarinet player Ashley Raster said.

The Knight Pride strives to get better each competition. This is a common goal the band shares.

“There is a lot of things going well this season,” Stegeman said. “There is a lot of drive and focus. I think musically we are very strong. The foundation for a good marching band is there. You have the drive, the team mentality, the spirit, focus and determination to get better each time we perform.”

The band competes next on Sept. 24 at Lafayette High School. Stegeman plans on working on transitions between movements along with cleaning the show as a whole. Also, they plan on adding new visuals and finishing up the show musically at the next competition.

“You know, from judges tapes we always learn you know what need to be worked on,” Stegeman said. “From a staff and directors standpoint we know a lot of these areas but sometimes judges articulate it better or sometimes they let us know what the most urgent issues are. Because they don’t know what our show is, what they see that stands out to them that is incorrect or lacking is definitely the things that need to be improved the fastest, because again if they don’t know the show and that stands out then obviously that’s an issue. We take that information and we process that and turn it into individual lessons and then work the marching band on those issues.”